Keywords - Title - Description - Heading - Robots

Check your WEB Page!   Use our Meta Tag Generator!

These are the most important parts of your WEB Page!!!
To get the word out there you must pay close attention to each of these.
Keep in mind that you have to come up with two different plans that will cover the different ways that search engines use this information.

There are Search Engines that will use the Meta Tags for indexing while others will only use the Page Content.

Title:

This is what displays for your listing.
Usually it will be your company Name.
Example - <title>Welcome to Myrental.com</title>
You should have a Title of no more than 100 characters and it should contain at least one important keyword

Keywords:

At one time the Majors stopped using it.
I have found they do use them but I would suggest using very few keywords.
I Have not confirmed that each Major does but I have seen proof that shows me it's best to fill them in.
Smaller Search Engines use them also and I would keep it down to five to eight phrases.
You must think of anything a person might type into the search to find what you are selling.
The order is also important - place the keyword with the highest priority first!
The search engines will usually place emphasis on the first three or four words.
A good example will be:
<meta name="keywords" content="car,rental,cars,automobile,automobiles">
You can combine keyword also such as <meta name="keywords" content="car rental, auto rental , auto, car">
Of course if you rent trucks also then trucks will be the second or third keyword.
I also suggest you place your domain name here as the last item in the list.
This is more important for many of the smaller engines which, do not index the domain names, title or description!
It makes it easier for you to find out if your site is listed with the engine or directory!
You should have at least 5 to 8 keywords on your main page with less more targeted keywords on sub topic pages.

Abstract:

This is a short description of your Web Page.
Just fill in a quick short description of your page - it must be brief.
The search engines read this first to get a feel for your web page.

Description:

This will be the paragraph that describes your company and it's services.
A good sales pitch is recommended here.
<meta name="Description" content="Myrental - for the best deals on car and truck rentals.">
You should have a Description of around 200 characters and no less than 150.

Heading:

This has become the replacement for keywords and Description for many search engines.
My suggestion is to come up with a heading that tries to combine the Meta Tag Keyword and Description content as best you can.
A good Example would be:
<h1>Myrental - for the best deals on car and truck rentals.</h1>
Of course your heading may be and should be a bit longer to fully describe you company.
Most important is to work those keywords in there.
Do not repeat the same keyword! The top engines may consider it Spam.
Once is enough - repeating the same keyword can hurt you!

Additional Important Tags

Distribution - Tells the engine if you want your listing Worldwide, local or IU (internal use)
Possible values - global, local or iu
<meta name="distribution" content="global">

Revisit-after - tells the Search Engine how often to check your site.
This is useful if you change you site often.
Replace X with number of days
<meta name="revisit-after" content="X days">

Robots:

The Robot meta tag is for the purpose of telling the search engines not to index the page!
There may be some pages that you don't want them to include for one reason or another.
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">
Since not all Search Engines use this you also have to have a file in your root directory called robots.txt
This one uses the following methods:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /robots.txt
Disallow: /images/
Disallow: /mydocs/
Disallow: /cart.asp

For more info on Robots check these sites: Robots Text    Google Webmaster Tips

What to do to solve Spam problems

If you are experiencing large amounts of Spam emails, and can't seem to find a way to stop it, follow these simple rules which can help.

Several steps to cut down Spam

Most common spam can be stopped by Spam filters offered by either ISP's or Hosting accounts. The most common used in Hosting companies is Spam Assassin. A setting in Spam Assassin allows you to add a line to the Subject line which is a great feature. This allows you to add something like **SPAM** to the Subject line. By doing this you can set rules in your Email application to either move the email to a folder if it contains **SPAM** in the Subject! If you use Outlook you can then set the Auto Archive to delete the message in X number of days which gives you a chance to look it over to be sure it's Spam. Most Spam filters allow you to delete the emails right away if they are checked by the filter to be spam but I do not suggest you do this because the filters may mistake important emails as spam. It's best to look them over once you have them in this separated folder to be sure they are junk.

Spam Filters are becoming less effective due to spammers turning to Free email services such as Hotmail and Email form Hijacking!

Do not ever reply to any Spam emails in any way at all. Most make the mistake of clicking on the Remove me link! This will have the opposite effect since you are confirming the email address is good to the spammer. If Spam gets through your Spam Filters send a complaint to the spammers Host! This can be found by checking the return path and seeing who sent it. In outlook you can right click on an email message and choose options. This will bring up a screen that shows all the email header stuff. Read through this and find a line that has From: The From: address is where the email was sent from! In most cases this will be free Hotmail addresses such as myway.com,  yahoo.com or hijacked email forms. Next send an email as follows:

Send an email to abuse@< senders address> and copy the contents of the screen shown in options along with a request to the email service to ask them to please put a stop to the spam. All websites should have an abuse address as should all hosting and email services companies. In some cases the return address will not be the real senders address. If this is the case then you may need help to locate the real senders address which is also within the header info shown in the options screen.

Spam is a growing problem and nothing the Government has done as of yet has helped to stop it. What is needed is to stop Spam is to ban the company, which is selling the product, from the internet since without a website an email to promote sales is useless!

Give us your thoughts - we love to know what the public thinks on this topic.

Vincent G.

When promoting your website use caution!

We are now seeing many new directories and search engines hitting the scene.
This may not be all good!!!
Although free listings is attractive sometimes free isn't good.
Some new sites are harvesting email addresses and spam is the price you pay for this.
If you don't want to open yourself up to loads of unwanted email use caution choosing sites to submit to.

Helpful tips for File Download

There are several ways to handle file download.
The best ways due to speed and Browser compatibility are third party upload/download products.
Two of the most popular are Persits ASPUpload and SA's Fileup.

These examples will show typical code associated with both.
For Persits:
To visit their Web Site Persits Software
Version 2 is a problem with some browsers - I suggest using version 3
on error resume next
Dim s_filename, s_filepath, s_fullpath
s_filename = Request.QueryString("file_name")
S_filepath = server.MapPath("sub_directory_name") & "\"
S_fullpath = filepath & filename
Set obj_Upload = Server.CreateObject("Persits.Upload")
if err = 0 then
  obj_Upload.SendBinary fullpath, True, "application/octet-stream", True ' (version 3)
  ' obj_Upload.SendBinary fullpath, True, "application/octet-stream" '(version 2)
else
  response.write(err.Description)
end if
if err then response.write("An Error has occurred - Please contact us - Error:" & err.Description)
set obj_Upload = nothing

For SA Fileup:
To visit their Web Site SoftArtisans
Dim s_filename, s_filepath, s_fullpath, oFS, oF
s_filename = Request.QueryString("file_name")
S_filepath = server.MapPath("sub_directory_name") & "\"
S_fullpath = filepath & filename
Response.Addheader "Content-Disposition", "Attachment; filename=" & filename
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
fullpath = filepath & filename
set oFS = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set oF = oFS.GetFile(fullpath)
Response.AddHeader "Content-Length", oF.Size
set oF = nothing
set oFS = nothing
Set download = Server.CreateObject("SoftArtisans.FileUp")
download.TransferFile fullpath
set download = nothing

Now if you don't have either of these or any other third party tools then we have two other ways to set your download.

Using simple script:
This works but it is slow to start with large files so your user may think your script is bad or that his browser died.
You also must use "application/octet-stream" as the mime type else the browser may open the file rather than download it.

ASP
 on error resume next
filename = Request.QueryString("filenm")
Dim s_filename, s_filepath, s_fullpath
s_filepath = server.MapPath("catalog") & "\"
s_fullpath = filepath & filename
set oFS = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oF = oFS.OpenTextFile( fullpath, 1, False )
If oFS.FileExists( fullpath ) Then
  Response.Addheader "Content-Disposition", "Attachment; filename=" & filename
  Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"
  While Not Bin.AtEndOfStream
    Response.BinaryWrite( ChrB( Asc( Bin.Read( 1 ) ) ) )
  Wend
Else
  Response.Redirect( "file_error.asp?fln=" & fullpath )
End If
Bin.Close
Set Bin = Nothing
set oFS = nothing

Simple download using .NET
For this one you must save the script as .aspx in order for it to work and your server must support .net
It is almost perfect in operation as an alternative to third party software.

Dim s_filename, s_fullpath
s_filename = Request.QueryString("file_name")
s_fullpath = Request.PhysicalApplicationPath & "catalog/" & filename
Response.Addheader("Content-Disposition", "Attachment; filename=" & s_filename )
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
Response.WriteFile (s_fullpath)

PHP
Check our download section for a PHP download script.
 

Remote Scripting

Many in the RS World are turning to the XML Parser from MicroSoft
Using XMLHTTP you can acomplish remote scripting but there are pit falls.
The biggest pitfall is calling a page in the same directory will crash the server.
There is nothing to install or download, the parser is supported by most browsers

JSRS:

This method uses an Iframe to accomplish similar functionality.

Other than this problem with the history bug in Netscape - JSRS works fine. Any browser that supports Ifames will work fine with JSRS and since the Iframe is now a standard I believe this is the better choice of the two.

For Compatibility with all browsers JSRS offers RSLite - This one uses image/cookie method to accomplish Remote Scripting.

JSRS Home Page

How to maintain an Access Database on the WEB

If you are setting up a Internet or Intranet site and really don't need to use SQL Server or Oracle as your database - Access may just do the trick.
The only problem is when you need to modify the database or import data.
The question becomes how do you do it.
You don't want to overwrite the database file because this can be a problem.
Should users be logged on at the time you decide to replace it you will run into trouble.

The best way is to use a remote access utility. There are a few on the market that serve this purpose but you might want to look into a product called Cute ASP Table Editor.

This one can be downloaded free from:    http://sourceforge.net/projects/cuteasp/

ASP Email

Want to add a contact us screen to your site but hide your email address?
Below is a sample and code to do just that.
This code uses the CDONT ASP Activex object to send mail

This is the code for the sender and form

Place this form and this script on your page
 

<%
 dim s_from, s_url, s_msg, rtn_msg, s_send_addr, rtn
 '--------------------------------------------------
 'Set to your return address
 
 s_send_addr= "myemail@my_url.com"
 '-----------------------------------------
 ' Do not change anything below this line
 '-----------------------------------------
 
 s_from = request("cemail")
 s_name = request("cname")
 s_url = request("curl")
 s_msg = request("cmessage")
 
 If len(s_from) = 0 or len(s_name) = 0 or len(s_msg) = 0 then response.redirect s_page & "?err=true" &_
  "&u_email=" & s_from & "&u_msg=" & s_msg & "&u_name=" & s_name
 If Len(s_from) <= 5 Then rtn = 1
 
 If InStr(1, s_from, "@", 1) < 2 Then
     rtn = 1
 Else
     If InStr(1, s_from, ".", 1) < 4 Then rtn = 1
 End If
 
 If rtn <> 0 then response.redirect s_page & "?err=true&type=ml&u_email=" & s_from & "&u_msg=" &_
  s_msg & "&u_name=" & s_name
 
 on error resume next
 
 Set mail = Server.CreateObject ("CDONTS.NewMail")
 
 if err = 0 then
  mail.BodyFormat = 1
  mail.MailFormat = 0
  mail.Send s_from, s_send_addr, "mail from: " & s_name, s_msg
  if err = 0 then
  rtn_msg = "Your Mail has been Sent<br><br>We will try to get back to you as soon as we can.
 Thank You"
  else
  rtn_msg = "Error Sending Mail: " & err.Description & "<br><br>Please email us at " & s_send_addr
  end if
 else
  rtn_msg = "Mail Error: " & err.Description & "
 
 Please email us at " & s_send_addr
 end if
 
 set mail = nothing
 %>
 <p align="center"><%=rtn_msg%></p>

Vincent Gabriele

Spam Filters - Friend or Foe?

Spam filters by filter services are no longer the way to go for Hosting companies. These filter services will do more harm than good.

Many Hosts install on their servers filters provided by free services.

The biggest problem with these is they are not working and due to the many ways spammers gain control of a system they will often black list victims of hijacking or other abuse by hackers/spammers instead of the spammer.

Is it proper to black list a server where 200 web sites are effected when one account has had it's email form hijacked?

Services such as spamcop.net, blarsbl, jammdnsbl and many others are not reliable due to the above or are just not kept in good working order. Spam is a problem and when these types of services first hit the scene they looked like a perfect solution. But as time went by absolutely irresponsible people got into this game and 70% of these services are out of date, broken or run by people with vengeance in their heart. One such service has a de-listing Fee of $5,000! while another threatens to black list your server permanently on repeat offences. Is this the way we solve a problem? Beat up the Host and force him to beat up the client? If not we will force you out of business!!! To avoid this mentality the best solution for a host is to do nothing other than provide a tool such as Spam Assassin. Let the client decide how to deal with Spam!!

Spam is at an all time high right now and will get worse as time goes by. There are too many email forms out there for hijackers to use plus hackers have reached a point where every server in the world is under attack every day to the tune of 300 or more attempts to break in. This is a huge number and it's growing! My guess is at the present course we will have tens of thousands of servers broken into daily in a few years as hackers go unchecked by law officials.

We the public can not stop spam with a sledge hammer! There is a way to stop spam but it requires government officials or those in control of the domains to black list owners and remove the domains from service. Without a domain a spammer is dead in the water since he has no where to send people and nothing to sell! Under the present system website owners that pay out the cash to send spam will just continue to do it no matter what it takes or who gets hurt! They will offer big bucks to hackers or hire many workers in third world countries to send out this spam. Law officials seem to think these problems are not important. They seem to feel it's a minor crime. Hackers roam the internet freely with no one going after them. The government seems to feel hacking is a security problem and blame the security people when systems get hacked. The internet is a virtual world much the same as the real world. If Governments took this stand in the real world we would have no police on the streets. Buildings would be surrounded by high walls with security systems everywhere. Just think about what your streets would look like if there were no police force. As in the real world the virtual world needs a police force to keep order in the virtual streets. Hackers must face 5 year minimum jail terms and domain owners that send out spam must have their rights to the domain revoked.

I suggest hosting companies form together to put a stop to this filtering system and push to force those in power to come up with a system to remove offending domains from the Web.

Vincent G.

Placing Text on a Picture

One method we can use is using a table with the picture as the background

<STYLE>
     .div_set {z-index:1; background-image: url(mars_lander.gif);
     font-size:34; font-weight:bold; text-Align:center;
     color: yellow; position:relative; width: 231; height:265;}
</STYLE>
 

In both cases to avoid repeating the image use background-repeat:no-repeat

Vincent Gabriele

WebSite Security

Many have had thier site hacked and many others are worried about this problem.

The number one thing you can do to prevent hackers destroying your website is make sure you have the newest version of software all the time!

The way hackers get into your site is by passing a command from their website to yours. This comes in the form of your PHP scripts like this

index.php?action=http://some website URL

In that URL is a text file of some other type of file and because the script did not prepare for such a thing the server then takes over and it just copies the file to the server. Once this happens the hacker has his foot in the door and if not caught in time he will do what ever he wants until complaints come in from Banks or for Spam or you find your website wrecked.

Thing that can help:

On the server side

Firewall - it can not help for this type of attack

Modsecurity - On Linux servers this helps greatly but the rules are not easy to work with for non-programmers.

SUPHP  -  This software once installed on a server locks access to the users given permissions. It helps to contain the problem but does not solve it.

Register Globals should be turned off on the server

On both the user and server side

Software Upgrades - This will help a lot since security problems are addressed in software patches and software upgrades. New versions normally include fixes for security problems.

So if you want your site secure then be sure your host has some sort of prevention software installed and keep your website software up to date!!!